The Paladin's tale
by werewolfnar
Summary: A young paladin is sent into a dangerous world outside her hometown to remove those dangers.Comments appreciated be nice, it is my first story.Based in a slight variant of the DnD world.


First, I would like to say that I don't really own the universe that I am writing in...I am 90 certain that this particular legal notice is unneeded, but it itsn't worth arguing.

Second, please forgive me for any practices or unwritten rules that I break, this is my first posting and while I have tried to follow the practices and rules, but I may have missed one.

Third, comments, even negative ones, are the fuel that will keep this going.

CHAPTER ONE

It was a bright and early in the morning when Serra roused me from a most enjoyable sleep. There was once a time in my past when being woken up in the morning with an angel in shining armor and carrying a giant sword would have caused quite a bit of fright. In truth Serra had become somthing of a mother figure to me in the 10 years I trained to become a paladin. Anyway, back to my story. She told me that today I would start my career as a true paladin. She told me that my first objective would be to take care of a pack of skeletons that had been sighted in some nearby woods. She would be sending along a monk from the local monastery that would help me deal with the undead. There would also be a ranger that would meet us in the woods. According to her, he hated the undead and would be able to help us out with dealing with them. Finally, she wanted us to bring back one of the skeleton skulls so that she could find out who created them. She said I might be out for a few days and to pack accordingly.  
An hour later, while I was still gathering my gear, I heard a knock at my apartment's door. It was a young monk.  
"Are you Ida?" asked the unarmored lad.  
"I am," I replied. "I suppose you are the monk that Serra sent"  
"Yes...I'm John"  
"Don't worry about Serra, she can be a little intimidating at times." I could tell that he wasn't used to having an angel come to him.  
"Umm, yeah...thanks...are you ready"  
"I could ask the same of you, you aren't carrying any weapons or armor"  
"I don't wear armor," he sounded indignant. "And I use my body as a weapon, plus some shuriken as needed"  
"I could use a few more minutes to get my things together, please come in and find a seat, I will be done in a few moments"  
I showed him to my sitting room and quickly gathered the remaining gear. Ten minutes later we were on the way out of town and to the forest that Serra indicated. We made quite a silent pair as we moved through the streets. A heavily armed and armored woman and a compltely unarmored and apparantly unarmed young boy.  
We passed through the gate out of the city and chose a road that led towards the indicated woods. I began to wonder when and where our ranger friend would meet us, when I spotted a ranger hanging out in the woods less than 50ft in front of us. He was standing beside a tree watching us approach.  
"You are the paladin and sent by Serra, yes?" asked the ranger.  
"Yes and you are the ranger?" I asked, while John looked sheepish.  
"Dan of Darkwood at your service," the ranger made a modest bow.  
"I am Ida and this is John," I said, indicating the monk.  
"I believe I know where they went. I think if we should get as far as we can before nightfall." With that, the ranger turned and headed into the forest. Ida took a moment to study him in detail. He was brown haired much like herself and he seemed slightly older than him. He carried a bow and quiver one his back and a dagger at his belt.  
A little while later, I thought came to me. "How do you know where the skeletons are going"  
The ranger made an odd expression for a moment and replied, "I hate undead and hunt the undead and as such, I know much of their habits"  
For the entire day, our group hiked through the woods until the sun was setting above our heads. The ranger led us to a clearing that had enough room for us to unroll our bedrolls and catch some sleep.  
"We make camp here for tonight. No fires, we are too close to areas haunted by the undead, no need to draw attention with smoke and light. I will take first watch. Who wants second?" the ranger looked at the group.  
"I will take it," I replied, I wanted to take the worst shift so the young monk didn't have to.  
John just sat there silently.  
"Monk, you get third watch. Speak up and you might get your choice next time," Dan said to John. The monk just ducked his blonde head and muttered somthing.  
We ate some of our train rations that night and refilled our our waterskins out of a nearby stream the Dan found.  
We all climbed into our bedrolls, except Dan who climbed a tree and sat on one of the lowest branches and took watch. He didn't seem to have a bedroll. If he planned on sharing mine, he had another thing coming. I awoke several hours later wishing I had about four times more sleep to Dan waking me up. I climbed out of my bedroll and sat at the base of the tree, I would have no luck climbing it in this armor.  
Dan chose another tree and climbed it, getting settled a little higher up in the tree this time. He seemed at home up the tree and fell asleep.  
I found myself studying him some more by moonlight while he slept. He was about 6 foot tall and couldn't have been a pound over 180. I found myself thinking that he must have quite a lot of luck with the ladies. As my watch dragged on, I found myself wondering more about the ranger I found myself traveling with.  
When the moon was about two thirds through the night sky I went to wake the monk. He took over the watch and I went to sleep wondering why I seemed to care so much about this ranger.  
The next morning I was awakened by a very handsome ranger and a very groggy monk.  
"It is time to go, sleeping ugly," the ranger said, looming over me.  
I must admit that I lost my cool and swung at the ranger. He easily dodged my laying down half-asleep swing. He just chuckled and told me to hurry and pack up.  
We marched again that day with the ranger in front, but this time the monk stood between him and me. I had never known anyone to make me so mad.  
After only an hour or so of marching, the ranger signaled for us to stop. He turned and said, "I think we are almost upon the undead. You two stay here and I will go ahead to take a look"  
With that he dropped his pack and slowly took off going from hiding place to hiding place. Two minutes later he came back.  
"They are about 300ft in front of us. Lets go," with that he turned and barely waited for us to drop our packs and follow. John had to be reminded to drop his pack.  
We moved forward staying hidden until Dan stopped us again. By now we could all see the pack of skeletons roaming in front of us. Ahead there were four wolf skeletons. They were just hanging out in a clearing.  
"I am going up in the tree and am going to shoot them, what are you guys going to do?" asked the ranger.  
For the first time since leaving my apartment, John actually said somthing. "I will sneak up close hit them before they notice me"  
Dan and I looked at each other for a moment and then looked back at John. The boy was obviously in his comfort zone now, about to enter a fight.  
After a moment, I said, "I will do what I do best, charge right into the pack of them and start swinging"  
Dan opened his mouth as if to protest, then closed it almost audibly.  
"Ok, ready?" asked John.  
"Give me a moment to get up the tree and then you two can have your fun," replied the ranger.  
Dan got up into the tree successfully, but made an awful lot of noise doing it. But the wolf skeletons didn't seem to notice and I let the breath go that I hadn't realized I was holding. When he was securely up in the tree, the wave for us to go. I motioned for John to go before me, since he wasn't going to move as fast while trying to be stealthy.  
John took off and went up closer to the pack, moving sliently and hiding behind the bushes and tress. I tried to move quietly but must have failed because they looked up and in my general direction, but apparantly my hiding was up to par as they didn't seem to see me.  
Dan shot an arrow at one of the beasts, but it just boucned off one the the thing's ribs. Right after that all hell broke loose. Three of them ran to start trying to climb the tree that Dan was hiding in. One ran up to me and I swung at it and missed. John seemed to remain completely unnoticed. I swung again and missed again.  
From out of nowhere John, charged one of the skeletons, having two of them snap at him, one biting him rather nastily on the shoulder as he passed. The flying kick knocked some of the bones out of the wolf. Dan quickly fired another arrow at the same skeleton, this one sticking into it's spine, but the thing was still standing.  
The skeleton John had hit turned and bit again, this time on the chest. John fell to the ground where he lay rather still and breathing badly. Two of the skeletons just kept barking at Dan, I briefly found myself wondering how a skeleton was barking, but was jerked back to reality as a skeleton jaw clamped onto my armor but didn't penetrate it. I swung back at the thing, but my sword bounced off it's bones.  
Dan fired another arrow at the skeleton that had just attacked John, burrying another arrow into its back. The stupid skeleton I had been fighting lunged at me again, but completely missed this time. I swung and missed again, this thing was really getting on my nerves.  
The fight continued for a while, I got a hit in, Dan dropped one of the skeletons. Right after I get my hit in, the stupid thing finally finds a weak place in my armor and clamps his jaw on it. Two of his teeth sunk into my arm. It wasn't a bad wound, but it made me really mad. After a few more missed swings, I finally hit that thing hard enough that it just fell apart. It was one of the most gratifying things I have ever done.  
I noticed that there was one of those skeletons still barking up the tree at Dan. I took a step back and charged at it. It tried to bite me, I brought my sword down and missed the stupid thing. And it promptly latched itself onto my arm and sank a couple of it's teeth into it. I was really getting tired of these skeletons latching their jaws onto my arm, then turned around and did it again. By now I could feel the blood flowing under my armor down my arm. None of the bites were serious on their own, but together they were beginning to look that way. It was time to get serious with my paladin skills.  
Summoning up some of those skills, I brought my sword crashing down smiting the skeleton on the head. It just staggered for a moment and came back at me. At this point I was rather worried, I called to Dan for help. Dan didn't seem to hear me and the undead wolf and I kept dueling it out. After a few blows, the thing finally collapsed like it's brother.  
Sparing a glance up into the tree, I could tell the Dan was not having an easy time with the skeletons. Apparantly his idea to hide in the tree was keeping him out of the way of the skeletons, but his arrows weren't doing all that well. I took a moment to get into a good position to charge the remaining skeleton, but just before I started my charge, one of Dan's arrows found the skeleton's neck and the thing collapsed into a pile of bones on the ground.  
Seeing that all the skeletons were dead, I ran for John as Dan hopped out of the tree and did the same. John was in bad shape. He was lying in a pool of his own blood, but he was breathing, if only barely.  
"Can you do anything for him, you are a paladin are you not?" asked Dan as we kneeled next to John.  
"Not yet, I'm not strong enough," I replied.  
"Then help me give him first aid"  
After ten very agonizing minutes of applying bandages and salves, John's bleeding stopped and we were able to breath a sigh of relief. Somewhat to my suprise, Dan didn't close his kit but turned to me instead.  
"Let me take care of your wounds," he said.  
"They can wait until we get John out of this area. I don't fancy one of them coming back while you are patching me up"  
"True, but you are going to let me clean those wounds. I don't want them getting infected and causing problems for you"  
Together we picked up John and brought him back to our bags. I didn't want to admit how badly I was hurt, but Dan noticed the blood beginning to drip from my arm onto the ground. As soon as we reached the backpacks he motioned for me to set John down.  
"This is far enough. You won't make it very far if you keep losing blood like that," Dan said with genuine concern in his voice.  
I sat down and covered my blush by looking to see how John was doing. For some reason I didn't completely understand, Dan showing concern over me was making me blush and want to smile.  
Turning back to him with my face under a bit more control, I studied his face for a moment. My long trusted gut instincts didn't react either way to his concern, but I could still feel the blood running under my armor.  
"Alright, do your thing," I said as I unbuckled the top half of my armor. I lifted it over the top of my head and set it aside and removed the armor on my right arm. I heard him suck in his breath when he saw the state of my arm and shoulder. In truth, I hadn't even seen it yet, but I didn't think it could look as bad as it felt. One quick look told me I was wrong.  
His face continued to show concern as he looked over my wounds. Finally, he spoke, "Umm ... I think I need you to take off your shirt"  
One glance showed me he woudn't be able to do much working around the padding I wore under my armor. Sighing, I gave him a cliche warning about not trying anything funny and took off my shirt.  
It didn't bother me nearly as much as I thought it would being topless in front of two guys I didn't really know. Of course, one of them being unconcious went a long way towards easing the awkwardness I would have normally felt.  
Dan fumbled in his bag for a moment and pulled out a cloth that he used to start wiping the excess blood off the wound on my shoulder. He then pulled a jar of salve out of the bag that he also applied to the wound, before wrapping my shoulder in some linen.  
I was suprised to find out that I enjoyed the feeling of his hands on my skin. This confused me greatly. I made a mental note to ask Serra what was going on, rangers must have some strange arua about them that I was not familiar with.  
Dan cleaned, medicated and bandaged the other wounds on my arm in the same way. Generating the same feelings, I noticed too. I must have been thinking too hard about what was going on with my emotions when Dan placed his had on my shoulder.  
"As much as I enjoy looking at your chest, you can put your shirt back on now"  
I swung at him again and again he dodged the incoming blow, which I blame on the fact that I was injured. He just smiled at me and turned his back while I put my shirt back on and began examining my armor. While I was looking at my armor, a thought struck me.  
"You know, Dan. Serra asked us to bring back one of their skulls"  
"Oh, right. Can you handle yourself for a few minutes"  
"I have for the last twenty-two years, I think I can for the next five minutes. Go get one of their skulls and hurry back. I don't want to have to swing this sword for long if they come back"  
"Right," and he started to walk off. Stopping, he turned and, with one of those looks I didn't understand said, "Stay safe," and left.  
I was still wondering what that meant when he finally came back, carrying one of the intact skulls. We spent the rest of the day limping our way back the way we came. That night, Dan took two and a half watches, I stayed up long enough to give him a couple hours sleep.  
The next day Dan suggested that we angle more towards the road in hopes of catching a passing farmer. It would be great if we could get a ride into town. We travelled the entire day, reaching the road only an hour ahead of sunset and began limping out way down the road, still carrying out incapacitated friend between us. I was feeling a little better and John was beginning to regain some of the color in his face that he lost earlier. However, Dan was beginning to show signs of fatigue from taking care of us and carrying most of the load.  
We finally flagged down a trader's cart heading into town and asked him for a ride into town. The man was rather suprised to see two injured members of the local clergy in the company of a ranger, but he gave us a ride anyway.  
Dan and the trader lifted John into the back of the wagon before Dan and I got into the back. Thankfully the wagon was almost completely empty, except for a couple locked chests. I sat down with my back to the front of the wagon. I invited Dan to sit next to me.  
"You should rest," I said.  
"So should you," replied.  
"Fine, we both need sleep, give me one moment." I tried detect evil on the trader and the chests. I didn't detect anything. I turned back to Dan, satisfied that we were as safe as could be for the moment, "Let me use your should for a pillow, I know you can fall asleep in any position, given what I have seen of you these last couple nights, but I am not so lucky"  
He studied me for a moment before replying. "Ok," was his somewhat belated response and he settled into what must have been a slightly more comfortable position. I laid my head on his shoulder and got some of the most peaceful sleep I have gotten as of late. Too bad it was only about a hour of it.  
We were both awakened too short of a time later to the sound of the trader arguing with some people. Looking over the edge of the wagon, I saw the the gates to the city had already closed for the night and that the trader was trying to explain that he didn't want to spend another night outside and that this shipment was already late. The guards were saying that the rules were the rules and that nobody could come through after dark.  
Thinking quickly I stood up. "I am Ida, paladin of the Order. This trader was kind enough to give us a ride. We also have John, a monk of the Order who is injured and needs healing. Let us through"  
The guards looked at each other for a moment, then knocked on one of the peepholes in the door. It opened and he had a brief conversation with the guard on the other side. A few moments later, one of the gates opened just far enough to let the wagon through. The trader muttered somthing that I was probably glad I didn't hear as we passed the gates.  
The trader turned around in his seat after while we rode through the streets, "I am headed into the inner city, I assume you are headed to the Halls of the Order"  
"Yes," I replied. Dan was looking rather groggy and confused, he was really low on sleep and it had obviously been a while since he was last in the city. "How much do we owe you for the trip?" I asked.  
"You already paid, knowing my luck I would have been attacked by bandits in the night while I waited for them to open those bloody gates. You saved me a lot of time and trouble by getting me in here. That is enough payment for me"  
"Thank you, sir"  
"No, thank you," and he turned around and drove his wagon up the main road to the Halls.  
Meanwhile, Dan looked at me and asked, "Where are we going again"  
I laughed and said "We are going to a place where we can finally get some rest"  
"Oh," and he resumed his unintelligent looking around the city.  
When we arrived at the gate to the Halls, two guards came out. They immediately recognized John and me and both of our states. Arrangements were made for Dan to stay in one of the visitor's quarters while John went to the infirmary to be healed and taken care of.  
I simply went to my room and hoped for a good night's sleep. It wasn't as good and peaceful as the sleep while I was with Dan, but it was welcome still. I went to sleep that night thinking about him once again.


End file.
